User centred design of Orygen virtual worlds: The next generation of telehealth for youth mental health care

Background: Rapid uptake of telehealth during the COVID-19 pandemic has opened a gateway to improving access to mental health care. However, existing platforms are not fit-for-purpose, resulting in poor treatment engagement. Virtual worlds (VW) are an innovative technology whereby users can meet and interact in real time using personally tailored avatars within 3D virtual environments. VWs may improve engagement and access to youth mental health care by offering a fun and interactive social space, with customizable features capable of supporting delivery of psychosocial treatment. The aim of this study was to develop a purpose-built VW designed to support delivery of youth mental health care. Method(s): A user centred design framework was employed to develop a prototype of Orygen Virtual Worlds (OVW) across 8 sessions with 8 young people with lived experience. Sessions progressed from basic concept validation, through to persona and journey mapping, and finishing with several user testing sessions to iteratively develop the prototype. Result(s): End users (young people) were overall very positive about the potential for VWs to supplement youth mental health services. Iterative feedback and testing identified core features needed to ensure the platform was usable, safe and capable of delivering effective individual, group and peer interventions. Conclusion(s): This presentation will showcase the development of this innovative new platform for delivering engaging, accessible and effective youth mental health care for hard-to-reach youth. Results will be discussed in context of the unique development approach informed by user centred design principles and implementation science.

Making Sense of Emotion-Sensing: Workshop on Quantifying Human Emotions

The global pandemic and the uncertainty if and when life will return to normality have motivated a series of studies on human mental health. This research has elicited evidence for increasing numbers of anxiety, depression, and overall impaired mental well-being. But, the global COVID-19 pandemic has also created new opportunities for research into quantifying human emotions: remotely, contactless, in everyday life. The ubiquitous computing community has long been at the forefront of developing, testing, and building user-facing systems that aim at quantifying human emotion. However, rather than aiming at more accurate sensing algorithms, it is time to critically evaluate whether it is actually possible and in what ways it could be beneficial for technologies to be able to detect user emotions. In this workshop, we bring together experts from the fields of Ubiquitous Computing, Human-Computer Interaction, and Psychology to-long-overdue-merge their expertise and ask the fundamental questions: how do we make sense of emotion-sensing, can and should we quantify human emotions? © 2021 ACM.